Saturday, July 02, 2005

This CA charter school: is this fair?

Here's one dynamic to keep in mind, illustrated in this CA charter school system (registration required).
A system of five public schools, from kindergarten to high school, where nearly all the students are white in a school district that is 37 percent white. Of the charter schools' 1,380 students, so far only 28 are in a vocational program. Those are also the only children not from Slavic immigrant families.

The students are mostly evangelical Christians, and three of the schools are housed in churches. For many students, the school day begins with voluntary prayer.

..snip..

The law also requires charter schools to attempt to be racially representative of the communities they serve. The Grant charter high school is 94.8 percent white, and the elementary schools are 99.1 percent white. The Grant district is 37 percent white. Elk Grove Unified, where one of the charter schools is located, is 32 percent white.
Voluntary prayer, demographics that don't represent the area, disregard for the state law requiring racial representation.

It seems the state, despite being 'concerned', has difficulty enforcing the school to be representative of its larger community even when laws exist.

When a school is allowed to choose its students unlike public schools, you can select for a particular population, and, in this case, the school ends up with mostly white Slavic children.

Is this a fair situation especially when the school is publically funded?